Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

1|Language&Gender

Language and Gender
There are two approaches regarding the relationship between language and gender
1) The biological approach 2)
The cultural approach
The biological approach focuses on the differences between the language of male and
female based on their physical and biological characteristics
...
Similarly, a men’s voice has greater base than of women
...

The cultural approach states that the differences between the language of male and female
are due to the social roles and statuses to them
...
Men on the other hand, use
speech to gain power, status and control
...

There have been many theories about the differences about the language of men and
women
...


A
...
Men, because of their social dominance, have greater linguistic freedom
...
In addition, it is men who initiate, interrupt and can conclude
conversation
...
They are not allowed
to use slangs or to laugh and talk loudly
...


The dominance theory is criticized by many people because there are certain situations where
women are dominant and they dominate the conversation
...
Similarly, Tannon is of the view that within a culture, there exists subcultures based on gender and those sub cultures have their own demands
...


2|Language&Gender

However, we still mark certain things in society
...
we use the marked terms to
create a difference between men and women
...

For example, the words “bachelor” and “sir” have only positive connotations, but “spinster” and
“madam” have got negative connotations with them
...
The Deficit Theory” by Robin Lakoff (1975)
Robin Lakoff in her book “language and woman place” points out some deficiencies of woman’s
speech and dominance of men’s speech
...

1
...
For instance, kind of, may
be, seems like, etc
...
They use more question tag then men to show uncertainty
...
They use more apologies even when they are not supposed to use

E
...
I am sorry, but

I think you are wrong
...

5 They use more intensifiers
E
...
very, so, quiet
...

7: They use empty adjectives such as adorable, lovely, Devine
...

Their language is very formal and refine
...
On the other
hand, men use language related to sports
...

11: They give indirect commands while men give direct command
...
It’s less assertive
...


3|Language&Gender

Lakoff concludes that these differences are because of the deficiencies of women’s speech and
they are culturally constructed
...


C
...

Following are the characteristics of men and women’s language highlighted by Tannen
1
...

2 Advice vs Understanding
When women face some problem, they use speech to get advice and sympathy from others while
men try to understand and solve a problem by discussing it
...
Information vs Feeling
Women use language for expressing and sharing their feelings while men use speech for sharing
information
...
Order vs Proposal
Men use direct orders in their speech, for example, Bring
me a glass of water
...
For example
Can you please make me drink a glass of water?
5 Conflict vs Compromise
Unlike man, woman avoids conflicts and tries to resolve disagreements by using polite speech
...
Independences vs Intimacy
From above detail discussion about language and gender we can conclude that the language
of women is quite different from that of men and these differences are socially constructed, rather

4|Language&Gender

than biologically, because it is the role and status associated with men and women which bring
these differences in their language
...

According to him, women talk more than men, talk more polite, are indecisive/ hesitant,
complain and, ask more questions, support each other, and are more cooperative then men
...


D
...
They pronounce the /g/ sound in the words ending
with ‘ing’ while men usually drop the /g/ sound in their speech
...
Jennifer Coates and

Deborrah Jones
...
Coates and Jones investigated all female conversation based on Tannen and lakoff’s theory
...
Which are as follows
1
...

2
...
Bitching
They always make complain about the place and situation they are living in
...
Chatting
They share their feeling emotion and personal stories

---